The Top Programming Languages in 2026: What the Rankings Actually Tell Us

Every year, dozens of indices claim to rank the “top” programming languages. The problem? They all measure different things and often tell contradictory stories. TIOBE says C is #2; GitHub says it barely cracks the top 10. TypeScript is #1 on GitHub but doesn’t even make TIOBE’s top 20.

So which ranking should you trust? None of them individually—and all of them together.

We pulled data from the five most respected language indices, compared their methodologies, and combined their insights to paint an honest picture of where programming languages stand in early 2026.

The Five Major Rankings

Before diving into the combined results, it helps to understand what each index actually measures:

A language that ranks high across all five is genuinely dominant. A language that ranks high in only one or two reveals something more nuanced about its niche.

The Undisputed Top Tier

1. Python — The Consensus Champion

Python holds the #1 position in four out of five major indices. The only exception is GitHub Octoverse, where it sits at #2 behind TypeScript.

Python’s dominance is driven by AI and machine learning—it powers approximately 50% of all AI repositories on GitHub. But it’s not just an ML language. Python is the most-searched tutorial language (PYPL), the top language for job postings (IEEE Spectrum Jobs), and the language developers most want to learn next (Stack Overflow).

The numbers that stand out: Python gained 7 percentage points in Stack Overflow usage in a single year—the largest jump for any major language. At 31.17% in PYPL, its lead over the second-place language (C/C++ at 14.96%) is more than double.

2. JavaScript — The Inescapable Language

JavaScript remains the most-used language in the Stack Overflow survey for the 13th consecutive year at 66% of respondents. It underpins 98% of all websites on the client side.

The divergence here is revealing. JavaScript ranks modestly in TIOBE and PYPL because fewer people are searching for JavaScript tutorials—it’s already so ubiquitous that most developers know it. But in actual usage (Stack Overflow and GitHub), it dominates.

JavaScript’s story in 2026 is really about its ecosystem. When you add TypeScript (which compiles to JavaScript) to the mix, the combined JS/TS ecosystem dwarfs everything else in web development.

3. Java — The Enterprise Anchor

Java appears in the top 7 of every single index, making it the most consistently ranked language after Python.

The trend line tells the real story: Java is declining across every index. TIOBE shows -2.54% year-over-year, PYPL shows -4.6%, and IEEE Spectrum dropped it from #2 to #5 in its Spectrum sub-ranking. But “declining” for Java still means nearly 30% of developers use it regularly. It powers Android, enterprise backends, and massive legacy systems that aren’t going anywhere.

The Strong Contenders

4. C/C++ — The Systems Programming Backbone

C and C++ are sometimes combined (PYPL) and sometimes separate (TIOBE, Stack Overflow). Either way, they remain essential. The tricky part is that different indices handle them differently, so here’s the full picture:

The PYPL surge of +7.6% for C/C++ is the largest gain of any language family in any index this year, reflecting renewed interest in systems programming and AI inference optimization where Python’s overhead becomes a bottleneck. C is actually rising in TIOBE (+1.22%)—one of the few top-10 languages moving upward—while C++ dipped slightly but remains firmly in the top 5.

5. C# — Language of the Year

C# was named TIOBE’s Language of the Year for 2025, showing the largest rating gain (+2.71%). It ranks in the top 8 across all five indices—a consistency that makes it one of the most broadly relevant languages in the industry.

The interesting tension: C# is surging in TIOBE (mindshare) and GitHub (code written) but declining in PYPL (tutorial searches, -2.9%). This suggests C# is gaining traction among experienced developers who already know the language rather than attracting new learners—which makes sense given its enterprise-heavy user base.

C#’s momentum comes from .NET’s cross-platform maturity, Unity game development, and Azure cloud services. It’s quietly become one of the most versatile languages in the ecosystem.

6. TypeScript — The GitHub Champion

TypeScript is the most polarizing language in the rankings. It doesn’t even make TIOBE’s top 20, yet it’s literally #1 on GitHub. No other language shows this extreme a divergence across indices.

Read that table again: from not-in-the-top-20 to literally #1 depending on which index you check. TypeScript is the single best argument for why you should never rely on one ranking.

TypeScript overtook both Python and JavaScript on GitHub in August 2025—the most significant language shift on the platform in over a decade. A 2025 academic study found that 94% of LLM-generated compilation errors were type-check failures, making TypeScript’s type system especially valuable in the age of AI-assisted coding.

The TIOBE/PYPL vs. GitHub/Stack Overflow split reveals exactly what each index measures. People aren’t searching for TypeScript tutorials (TIOBE and PYPL measure searches)—they already know TypeScript because they know JavaScript. But they’re writing enormous amounts of TypeScript code (GitHub and Stack Overflow measure what developers actually use). This is a language where adoption outpaces curiosity because it’s a natural upgrade from a language developers already know.

The Rising Stars

Rust — Most Loved, Growing Fast

Rust is the most admired language in the Stack Overflow survey for the 9th consecutive year (72% admired). On GitHub, it grew approximately 50% year-over-year. But its actual adoption numbers tell a more nuanced story.

Rust is the rare language that ranks higher in sentiment than in usage. Nearly three-quarters of developers who use it love it, but only 14.8% of developers use it at all. The gap between admiration and adoption is closing—PYPL puts it at #7 and GitHub growth is explosive—but Rust hasn’t yet broken into the mainstream the way its enthusiasts might suggest. The languages it’s replacing (C and C++ for new systems projects) have decades of momentum.

Go — Cloud-Native Workhorse

Go powers much of the cloud-native ecosystem (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform are all written in Go) and grew 25% year-over-year on GitHub.

Go’s rankings reveal an interesting pattern: it’s declining in search-based indices (TIOBE -1.03%, absent from PYPL) but growing in usage-based ones (Stack Overflow, GitHub). Like TypeScript, this suggests a language that developers learn once and then just use—they stop searching for tutorials. Go’s simplicity is both its strength and its explanation here: there’s less to look up.

Kotlin — The Android Standard

Kotlin is Google’s preferred language for Android development and sits comfortably in the top 20 across most indices.

Kotlin’s trajectory is tightly coupled to Android’s market share. It’s not expanding much beyond mobile, but within that niche, it’s the clear standard.

Other Languages to Watch

Several languages from our archive show interesting trajectories:

• R: Surging in both TIOBE (#8, +1.14%) and PYPL (#4, +2.4%), driven by data science
• Perl: A surprise TIOBE riser (#11, +1.19%), proving reports of its death are exaggerated
• Ada: Remarkably strong in PYPL (#10, +1.5%), reflecting embedded and safety-critical demand
• Fortran: Still in TIOBE’s top 12 (#12, 1.64%), dominant in scientific computing
• Lua: Growing steadily in PYPL (#16) and Stack Overflow (#16, 9.2%), popular in game scripting
• Swift: Holding strong in PYPL (#6, 3.92%) for Apple ecosystem development
• Dart: Flutter’s growth keeps it in the top 20 (Stack Overflow #19, 5.9%)
• Ruby: Still 6.6% of deployed websites (W3Techs) and used by 6.4% of Stack Overflow respondents
• Scala: Powers 4.9% of websites (W3Techs) in big data and enterprise environments
• Elixir: Named 3rd most admired language in Stack Overflow (66%), growing in real-time systems
• Assembly: Still relevant—7.1% of Stack Overflow respondents and #19 in TIOBE
• Delphi: A quiet TIOBE top-10 presence (#10, 1.88%), still used in enterprise desktop applications
• PHP: Despite ranking #13 in TIOBE (1.34%), it powers 72.2% of all websites server-side thanks to WordPress

The Combined Picture

When we weight all five indices equally and normalize the rankings, a clear hierarchy emerges:

Tier 1 — Dominant (Top 5 in 4+ indices):

1. Python
2. JavaScript / TypeScript
3. Java
4. C / C++
5. C#

Tier 2 — Established (Top 15 in 3+ indices): 6. Go 7. PHP 8. Rust 9. Kotlin 10. R

Tier 3 — Strong Niche (Notable presence in 2+ indices): 11. Swift 12. Ruby 13. Perl 14. Dart 15. Lua

What Should You Learn?

Rankings are useful for understanding the landscape, but the “best” language depends entirely on what you want to build:

• AI/ML: Python is non-negotiable
• Web frontend: JavaScript or TypeScript
• Enterprise backend: Java, C#, or Go
• Systems programming: C, C++, or Rust
• Mobile: Kotlin (Android) or Swift (iOS)
• Data science: Python or R
• Scientific computing: Python, Julia, or Fortran

The most important trend across all indices isn’t any single language—it’s that Python’s AI-driven dominance is reshaping the entire ecosystem, TypeScript is proving that type safety matters more than ever in the age of AI-assisted coding, and the old guard (C, C++, Java) remains deeply entrenched despite years of predictions about their decline.

Sources

• TIOBE Index, February 2026
• PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language Index, February 2026
• IEEE Spectrum Top Programming Languages 2025
• Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025
• GitHub Octoverse 2025